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Lasering Leaves Journals/Blogs
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Regular poster 188 posts steamhog Regular poster 188 posts
steamhog

The Long Island Rail Road is using a laser system to remove leaves from their rails.  The system is from LPS, a Netherlands company based in Amsterdam.    https://www.laserprecisionsolutions.com/

PS%20%20.jpg 

The orange unit raises and lowers the laser shoe as needed, based on GPS data of railroad crossing and turnouts.  Fiber optics bring the laser energy from a larger unit in the car above. This picture is from a tour of the MTA's ( Metropolitan Transportation Authority ) Long Island Rail Road  Hillside shops. 
  By the way, the acronym "laser" stands for ​
  Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

Chris
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Greg Amer gregamer Regular poster 496 posts
Greg Amer gregamer

Innovative

What’s cooler than sharks with laser beams? This looks like really a useful technology.

 
Greg Amer The Industrial Lead

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Ken Rice Super User 5,956 posts
Ken Rice

Cool

Definitely cooler than the high pressure water method the MBTA uses.  I wonder how the cleaning power compares?

My blogspot blog: http://rices-rails.blogspot.com/
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Jim at BSME Prolific poster 2,125 posts
Jim at BSME

Sweeper

Wonder why the high tech solution, seems like this would work just fine:

G_0036-1.jpg 

from:  http://rockhilltrolley.org/iowa-terminal-railroad-snow-sweeper-3/
- Jim B.
Baltimore Society of Model Engineers, Estd. 1932
O & HO Scale model railroading
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Ken Rice Super User 5,956 posts
Ken Rice

Slime

The brush will sweep off the loose leaves, but it won’t clean off the slime/grease left by decaying or crushed leaves.  The “old” way is to use high pressure washing to get the slime off ( https://www.keoliscs.com/news/keolis-mbta-focused-on-improving-reliability-during-fall-slippery-rail-season/), I guess the laser burns it off.

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Paul Mac espeelark Super User 710 posts
Paul Mac espeelark

LPS needs a better Marketeer!

Of that 2:01 long video from LPS, 1:39 discussed what the problem is. The last 20-odd seconds basically said "we use lasers". Never did it explain how lasers clean the track of leave detritus, or how it compares to other processes in terms of safety, cost, effectivity, etc.

Cute graphics, but that's about it....

Paul Mac

Modeling the SP in Ohio                                                                                  "Bad is never good until worse happens"
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DirtyD79 Active Member 96 posts
DirtyD79

HAHA! Zap them leaves!

HAHA! Zap them leaves!
"The good ole days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems."-Billy Joel
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